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CITY OF CLEARWATER COMMISSION HEARINGS RE: THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY |
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EXHIBIT IX: AFFIDAVIT OF JANET TROY I, Janet Troy, of Boston, Mass, hereby depose and state under pains and penalties of perjury: I was first introduced to Scientology by a co-worker in January of 1978, who sent me to the Boston "Org". At that time I had recently broken up with a boyfriend of seven years and I felt emotionally distraught. I had also recently moved to Boston. The first night I went into the Org I told them that I had broken up with my boyfriend. I spoke with a person named Peter, and he told me that auditing would take care of any problems I had, particularly involving personal relationships, but first I was required to take a Communications Course for a fee of $35. I was told to begin the next day. Employees of the organization also told me and showed me Scientology literature that auditing would do the following:
I was told that auditing was done with an "E-Meter" (like a lie detector) and that it was confidential between myself and the auditor and I heard a tape by L. Ron Hubbard in which Hubbard said auditing was better than confession. The schedule was very strict. Courses ran from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. You were allowed to leave at 5 p.m., but you were generally pressured to stay as long as you could. I was there vacation days and weekends. Often I would get upset while taking the Communications Course. The course required strict obedience to various drills. The drills involved repetitive routines which directed your mind into patterned responses. I was having difficulty adjusting to the severance of a very close relationship and the drills demanded you to be aggressive and to be able to take criticism. One drill called "Bullbaiting" was designed to criticize a person and have them react with no emotion, just perfect obedience. I would often leave the room crying. Because of the horrible experiences I was having on the course, I stopped going to the Org. A few days later, Joseph Urich, the Ethics Officer, called my house and asked me to come in. He said to trust him as a person because it was obvious I needed someone to personally communicate with. In his office he gave me reading material regarding people who were "PTS". The material said that these type of people would "roller-coaster" in life because they could not adhere to a uniform pattern of behavior. The material said I was PTS because a "suppressive person" had control over me. A "suppressive person" was anyone opposed to Scientology. It said that this person was possibly in direct contact with me now or could be from a past life. I was required to write down whoever I thought was suppressive to me. I was then told to either "handle" or "disconnect" from everyone on the list in order to improve myself and to get auditing. As a result, I was compelled to sign documents stating that I was "disconnecting" from my father, boyfriend, and eventually my sister (whom I lived with) because they couldn't be "handled". After doing the Ethics exercise I was instructed to go back to the Course. Also, during this time Joseph Urich often spoke to me after the "Org" closed. We discussed my attitudes toward the course and he tried to enlist my trust. I had seen a therapist prior to my signing the Communication Course. During my meetings in the Ethics Office, I was also required to "disconnect" from the therapist. This meant I could never call her or see her. I had been seeing her two times a week and had been calling her about 4 or 5 times a week, whenever I felt upset. To replace this, Urich said I could talk to and trust him. On or about February - March, 1978, while in the course I received an Auditing Interview and was asked questions to determine who much auditing I needed for "Life Repair", the first level of auditing. The Org leader asked how I felt about life and what I wanted to accomplish in auditing. I had to put this in writing. I wrote that I felt "upset", "not like myself" and that I wanted to feel better, gain back my confidence and positive outlook on life, and achieve all of the benefits promised in their literature. After reviewing my interview, the chief auditor determined I would need 10 sessions (12-1/2 hour blocks) to achieve "Life Repair." It was later reduced to five sessions before I began, (after I was unable to raise additional money and had joined the staff). During the course, I was at the Org every evening until at least 10 p.m. My sister and her husband had moved to another apartment in order to give me a room and assist me. But because I was rarely there (except to sleep) to help with cleaning, cooking, etc., my sister was getting angry. The people at Scientology and Urich in particular, said that she was only being "suppressive", that she had no cause to be hostile and urged me to move. At first I refused. But I continued on the Course because of the promises made to me. I was continually told that my sister was being "suppressive" and I was repeatedly promised that "auditing" would achieve all of the benefits sought if I could raise money to pay for it. At the end of the Communications Course, I was pressured to begin auditing. I told them that I could not afford it, but they strongly pressured me to join staff. I was told that as a staff member I would then be eligible for the "1/2 price". I later learned that staff members received free auditing, and that they had lied to me. I joined the staff in approximately April, 1978. I was required to work from 6-10 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. I also had to take Staff Status 0, another course, before getting a position placement. The schedule alternated between study and work. I met with the Registrar to raise money for auditing. He instructed me to get it any way I knew how. The director of the Org, Joan Gambino, sat in in on several meetings. She told me she had sold everything she owned and borrowed money anywhere she could for her auditing. I felt desperate to get "Life Repair", so I agreed to do whatever they said. As far as I can remember these are the ways I raised money, all of which I paid to them for auditing:
When I borrowed the money from my father, Joan Gambino and Joseph Urich told me to call my father on the phone at the Org while one of them stayed with me. They told me to tell my father that the money was primarily for my apartment and things like that. They told me not to tell him it was for auditing. After he sent me the money, I later was told to go to Connecticut and borrow more money from him. They made me rent a car and Urich went with me to Connecticut. I dropped him off a short distance from my house and he told me to be back in one hour, no matter what my father said to me. My sister had sent a copy of the Scientology newspaper to my father and my father questioned me about Scientology. I admitted that the previous money had been used for auditing and he refused to give me any more money. Afterwards, I was told to disconnect from my father. Urich also ordered me to quit my job because it was suppressive to me and causing an unstable environment that would limit the auditing effect. I quit in April and felt worse. I was supposed to work for the Org selling prints from a Scientology group in California, but I gradually became more and more unstable and under Scientology's influence. I now depended on Scientology for income which was only between $5 and $15 per week despite the fact that they had promised me approximately $70-$100 per week. At this point I was also required to "disconnect" from my sister before I could receive auditing. During April, 1978, I moved out of my sister's apartment and moved in with a girl who was the girlfriend of another staff member. I became more isolated and confused. I also became more withdrawn and my dependence on Scientology increased. I was desperate to get more money for auditing so I greed to do whatever necessary. I finally accumulated enough money from loans and with the other money from the sale of property I had enough for the auditing, which I started in May. During the first session I stayed with other Scientologists so that I would be in a "stable Scientology environment." The first session involved drills requiring immediate response to various commands. When I complained I was told to write down how I felt and then I would get more auditing. I was told by Mike Alla, the auditing coordinator, to be patient and that I had to get a good foundation in order to ever become "clear". I did more drills and commands. In further auditing sessions, I was asked about my relationship with my father and family background. At the time I was having a difficult time with my father, who had become opposed to Scientology, so I was asked to tell everything I knew about him, etc. I was asked the same about my ex-boyfriend who I had dated for 7 years and had broken up with in November, 1977. The questions were very personal and I was always questioned until I answered. I gradually felt very hostile to my father and to my family. I was asked how I felt about Scientology and Ron Hubbard as well, and if the E-Meter needle indicated an "overt" or a "withhold" I was drilled about everything I knew about Scientology or Hubbard. After the last session I was told by Mike Alla that I had completed Life Repair and that night I was told to sign a document stating that I had achieved all that Life Repair stated. At this point I had received about 50 hours of auditing and had paid them approximately $4,200. I told him I still did not feel well and I continually told this to the auditor and to the Ethics Officers. Then I was given the "descriptions" of the auditing benefits (defining every word) until I said I was satisfied that I understood that only a "clear" is a "well and happy" person. Alla and Urich agreed with me that the auditing did little or nothing to help me but Alla said "Remember what you were like when you came here". I knew they were trying to make me believe that I was so bad before I came in, that actually I should be thankful. Alla recalled that the original estimate had been 10 sessions and that I needed more auditing. I was told to raise more money in order to complete the auditing process and I told them I could not. I now realize that as soon as my paid account had run out, they concluded that my "Life Repair" was complete. Subsequently, I was assigned to the book store to work as a staff member. I was told that I would get more auditing after I got more money. With no job, nothing left to sell and not even talking with my father, I knew I couldn't get more money. I often had to go home on the bus at 1 a.m. or so after work at the Org. In July, all staff members were forced to stay until they had written their quota of letters to people in the files. The quota was 10 per night. Occasionally, they all had to stay in order to straighten out one of the departments. This was mandatory. Because of the late nights I was often afraid at night traveling alone. Once I missed my stop and ended up in Watertown Square but I was completely lost because I was unfamiliar with the area. I finally convinced a taxi driver to take me home, even though I had no money. I got home about 3 a.m. and it was a horrifying experience. Many times following the auditing sessions I felt dazed, confused, and mindless. In retrospect, I now see that I was totally under the influence of my auditor and, as in the auditing sessions, did whatever he requested me to do. Following many of these auditing sessions while I was staying at the apartment of Joseph Urich with other Scientologists, I was approached by Urich and had intercourse with him. I became pregnant and had no recourse but to undergo an abortion because Urich became very cold to me, and at that time I was totally isolated from my sister, my father and all of my former friends. The abortion shocked me into awareness of everything that I was involved with. I gradually became aware of the strange control and dominance Scientology had gradually imposed on me, and even more importantly I began to become aware of the terrible experiences I had in Scientology. Some of these experiences are as follows:
By the end of August I was somewhat shocked out of Scientology and aware of the terrible things that had been done to me, but I was still extremely afraid to walk into the Org and tell them that I was quitting because I felt like they were "everywhere" and would come after me. In addition, I had been continually told that if I ever turned against Scientology I would "pull-in" awful things against me in this life and in future lives and I was told stories of other people who had terrible things happen to them after they left Scientology. For example I was told that my sister had "pulled-in" an accident she had in July of 1978 where she broke her jaw because she had been a suppressive person to me. In late August, 1978 I no longer went to the Org and they contacted me numerous times and tried to get me to come back. They told me that I had not been "ruthless" enough in my disconnections from suppressive persons and that that is the reason that the auditing had failed. Signed under the pains and penalties of perjury this __ day of January, 1980. [Signed] Janet E. Troy of Boston
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